Explore the Bible: February 12

You Have Seen Him? • John 9:24-38

By Rick Henson

The man in John nine had an amazing experience with Jesus but was not yet saved. The disciples asked an age-old question: why had something bad happened to this man? They queried if it were his parents’ fault or his own.

Human nature seeks to place blame for undesirable events. We are tempted to ask, “Why?,”when faced with adversities. ‘“Why me?” “Why did this happen?”

We learn from the response Jesus gave the disciples that the better question is, “What?” What is God going to do with this adversity or problem? Jesus told the disciples this blindness happened for the glory of God.

Rather than dwelling on the “Why,” let us focus on what God can do through our adversity; decide what are we going to do in this situation; what will be our response; what way can we glorify God through our problems; and what the Lord is attempting to teach me through this condition?

Asking, “Why?,” leads to despair, but asking, “What?,” yields the glory of God. May we seek the spiritual discipline to ask, “What?,” rather than, “Why?”

Jesus spit. Surely the disciples were confused. Jesus said they would see the glory of God, and then He spit. Maybe by this time they were accustomed to unusual behavior by Jesus, according to human standards.

From John 1:3, we know that Jesus is the creator of everything, including man. Genesis 2:7 states that God made man from the dust of the ground. Here Jesus used dirt to heal by adding His own spit. How and why he did this is clearly a mystery, yet when the man born blind obeyed and went to the pool of Salome to wash off the mud, he was healed and could see.

Eventually, the Pharisees questioned the man born blind because Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath. In Exodus 20:8-11 the Lord gives Moses the fourth of the Ten Commandments. Without details, God says simply to honor the sabbath and do not work. The Scripture does not define work, so the Israelites had defined it in their writings outside of the Scripture, often referred to as the tradition of the elders.

The Pharisees criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, which they saw as work based on their tradition of the elders. As in John 5 where Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, the religious leaders were more concerned that it happened on the Sabbath than that Jesus revealed His deity by healing.

The unnamed man born blind, in response to the Pharisees’ questions about who Jesus was, famously responded in John 9:25, “One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see” (KJV). This phrase was used wonderfully by John Newton in a verse from the song, Amazing Grace: “…was blind but now I see.”

Though this man testified about his experience with Jesus, he still was not saved. Near the end of John 9, Jesus finds the man and asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. The formerly blind man says he does not know who He is, so Jesus revealed that He Himself is the Messiah.

The man believed in Jesus and worshiped Him. Then he was saved. Prior to that he had been healed by Jesus and even testified about Him, but he was not saved. Let us be careful not to confuse a religious experience with genuine salvation.

Colossians 1:13 reads, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (KJV). When we are saved, we receive spiritual sight, whereas while in our sins, we are blind.

Joel, a Louisiana man I knew, has an amazing testimony. As a young man before he was saved, he lost his sight. After a few years, he met Jesus and was gloriously saved. He shared his powerful testimony saying, “I could see, but I was blind. Then I could not see and I was blind. Now in Jesus, I am blind, but I can see.”

Henson is minister of outreach and evangelism at Bethel Church, Brandon.